Grid workers

Around 10 am on Monday, Fang Zenghui stood under a 10 kilovolt power transmission line on a mountainside in scorching heat. His uniform was soaked in sweat.

With the temperature climbing to nearly 40 C in Yixian county, Huangshan, Anhui province, by noon, the power grid employee started the day's work before 6 am to complete his tasks before it became too hot.

Fang, 27, whose given name literally means "to shine more brightly", said he had been longing for rain for days. "There was finally a shower on Tuesday afternoon, but it did not last long," he added.

Operating a drone on Monday morning, Fang checked the screen to see if there was anything wrong with the power line. Unable to hide from the sun, he also made sure he could see the drone overhead and that it was working efficiently.

Fang soon found a bird's nest close to a power breaker on a transmission tower. He used the drone to take photos of the nest and uploaded them via a smartphone app to report the discovery.

A bird's nest in such a position is regarded as a dangerous obstacle and has to be removed. "We cannot afford any potential collapse of the power supply," Fang said.

With the impact of the ongoing heat wave in the region and beyond, the peak-hour electrical load of the power grid in Huangshan reached a record 498,900 kilowatts earlier this month and has continued to rise.